István Czachesz

Over the last few decades, our knowledge of how the human mind and brain works increased dramatically. The field of cognitive science enables us to understand religious traditions, rituals, and visionary experiences in novel ways. This has implications for the study of the New Testament and early Christianity. How people in the ancient Mediterranean world remembered sayings and stories, what they experienced when participating in rituals, how they thought about magic and miracle, and how they felt and reasoned about moral questions--all of that can be now better understood with the help of insights from cognitive science. Istvan Czachesz argues that the field of New Testament Studies witnesses the beginning of a cognitive turn. He surveys relevant developments in the Cognitive Science of Religion and explores the field of cognitive and behavioral sciences in search of opportunities of gaining new insights about biblical materials. Czachesz presents some methodological tools and initial steps, together with a large number of examples of applying the cognitive approach to the New Testament and related ancient literature.

A New Approach to Early Christian Research

Cognitive Science and the New Testament

Ronit Nikolsky

Frederick S. Tappenden

Tamás Biró

What role do texts play in religious practice? What is the relationship between these texts and cognition? Are some texts more successful because they are better adapted to our cognitive structures? Why is biblical interpretation necessary, and what is the cognitive process behind it? This book considers such questions, and fills the gap in research on religious texts and narratives in the cognitive science of religion. The study of ancient religions and biblical studies are dominated by textual evidence. However, the cognitive science of religion is lacking significant research on the language and textual interpretation of this literature. This book presents a systematic attempt to redefine the interpretation of religious texts in a cognitive framework, providing concrete textual analysis on a broad selection of biblical passages. It explores the ways that cognitive approaches to language and textual interpretation expand the disciplines of the cognitive science of religion and biblical studies. This book brings together methodology from the cognitive sciences, linguistics, philology, biblical studies, and religious studies, to offer a new perspective for biblical studies and cognitive sciences. It presents a renewed vision of textual interpretation - one that aligns hermeneutical reflection with our cognitive capacities.

Interpreting Minds

Language, Cognition, and Biblical Exegesis

Gerd Theissen

Lung Pun Common Chan

Der kognitive Ansatz ist eine Chance, sich über den Gegensatz von Theologie und Religionskritik hinweg neu über die Religion zu verständigen. Dieser Ansatz erkennt im Kontraintuitiven und Paradoxen religiöser Überzeugungen eine verborgene Weisheit, die unsere mentalen Strukturen dann anspricht, wenn sie mit intuitiv einleuchtenden Vorstellungen verbunden ist. Auch die Ausbreitungsdynamik des Urchristentums wird verständlicher, wenn man die Geschichte und Theologie, die Sprache und Erfahrungswelt sowie das Gottesverständnis und die Christologie des Urchristentums kognitiv analysiert.

Zur kognitiven Analyse urchristlichen Glaubens

Kontraintuitivität und Paradoxie

István Czachesz

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